The undermanned Galaxy’s underwhelming season has ended with a whimper for a second consecutive year and change is in the air as the franchise approaches its final year with a soccer monopoly in Los Angeles before LAFC joins the MLS fray in 2018.

It was an apt way for the Galaxy to end a generally poor season that never really got rolling.

Injuries prevented the star of the show in the opening game against the Rapids, Emmanuel Boateng, from a reprise, while Gyasi Zardes also remained sidelined, Landon Donovan left the game prematurely with an injury tightness and Robbie Keane was limited physically and unable to even take a PK.

An excessive amount of injuries may not have helped the Galaxy this year, but it was quality missing at both ends of the field that largely caused the club’s downfall.

Not surprisingly, Arena felt that was the case against the Rapids yet again.

To emphasize that, Arena threw young goalkeeper Brian Rowe under the bus in his post-game comments and yet again challenged Giovani dos Santos, who missed his penalty kick, to step up and take charge of the Galaxy next year.

“They have a very experienced goalkeeper and we don’t,” Arena said without noting the opposing goalkeeper was Tim Howard, arguably the best-ever American goalkeeper. “Maybe the difference was the goalkeeper today.

“Not much of a factor,” Arena added of dos Santos’ uninspiring performance. “He should be more demanding of himself to have a greater presence game in and game out.”

And next year he will have to step up more, especially if Gerrard and Keane leave, while Arena, too, is out of contract.

Given the two successive disappointing seasons following the Galaxy’s last MLS Cup — were Arena anything other than the most successful coach in league and, arguably, American soccer history — he may not well return either.

The Galaxy will need to step it up on and off the field to ensure Southern California’s fickle fans don’t decamp to the club’s soon-to-be rival.

Etc.

Despite the Galaxy’s season-ending loss, there is still live soccer in Southern California this weekend; the U.S. Women’s National Team concludes its year with a 6:30 p.m. game Sunday in Carson against Romania (live on Fox Sports 1). … The U.S. men, with the Galaxy’s Alan Gordon a late addition to the squad, take on dos Santos and Mexico at 4:45 p.m. Friday (live on FS1 and Univision) from Columbus, Ohio, in the opening game of the hexagonal, the final round of regional qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. … The U.S.-El Tri face-off isn’t the only World Cup qualifier in the next few days between bitter regional rivals: Brazil and Mexico meet at 3:35 p.m. today on BeIn Sports, while England and Scotland renew auld acquaintances in the world’s oldest international rivalry at 11:45 a.m. Friday on FS1. …Finally, this columnist is taking a break for the rest of this year; the column resumes in January.

Veteran journalist Nick Green is the beat reporter for the cities of Torrance, Carson and Lomita and also covers the South Bay's rapidly growing craft beer industry for the Daily Breeze. He has worked for newspapers on the West Coast since graduating in 1987 from the University of Washington and lives in Old Torrance with his wife and two cats. Follow him on Twitter @NickGreen007 and @BeerGogglesLA.